CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 9 – MERRY CHRISTMAS!

07:06 (London Time)

Saturday, December 25, 1943 ‘B’

Regional air traffic control center, Northolt Airport London region, Great-Britain

‘’Hey, George, what is that flight plan registered under the call sign ‘North Pole One’? I know that it is Christmas today, but I still have an unidentified radar echo from the North approaching London on my screen.’’

‘’An echo?’’ said the air controller’s supervisor, surprised. ‘’But I thought that this flight plan was simply a joke. If that echo is coming from the North, then the controller in Manchester should have passed him to you, no?’’

‘’He didn’t transmit me anything, George, I swear! This echo suddenly appeared out of nowhere, at the maximum detection range of our radar.’’

‘’Did you try to contact it?’’

‘’Uh, not yet.’’

‘’Then, do it! In the meantime, I will advise the R.A.F. that it could have to go identify visually an unknown airplane.’’

‘’Will do!’’ replied the controller before activating his radio microphone, connected to the radio frequency for the London area. ‘’North Pole One, this is Northolt Control, identify your aircraft type, your exact point of origin and your final destination, over.’’ A couple of seconds later, a jovial male voice answered him on the radio.

‘’OH OH OH! This is North Pole One, coming from the North Pole. I am on my way in my flying sled to go distribute toys to the little poor children of London, over.’’ Normally, the air controller would have smiled at this attempt to promote the spirit of Christmas, but he didn’t feel like laughing now, not with an unknown aircraft out of nowhere approaching London. The other controllers on duty in the room were now listening on, both curious and intrigued.

‘’North Pole One, be serious and give me your true identity. If not, I will be forced to have you intercepted, over.’’

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To the frustration of the air controller, the answer came in the same jovial tone as the first one.

‘’OH OH OH! But I am Santa Claus, Northolt Control. I must go deliver my toys. If I don’t, the children of London will be most sad. Your pilots are welcome to come see me and escort me, if you think that it is necessary, over.’’

‘’GEORGE, TELL THE R.A.F. TO SCRAMBLE THEIR ALERT PATROL! THIS IDIOT IS STARTING TO BUG ME!’’

07:18 (London Time)

Pair of Gloster METEOR jet fighters

Sky over Bedford, north of London

Flight Lieutenant Desmond Radwell was in a bad mood as he led his wingman on the interception heading given by the fighter controller in Uxbridge. It was frustrating enough to get stuck with a supplementary duty on Christmas day as punishment for having started a fight in the officers’ mess of the base four days ago. To have to abandon his breakfast before he could even touch his eggs had really ticked him off. And all that because some idiot who thought that he was funny was passing himself as Santa Claus. Well, if ‘Santa Claus’ refused to obey him, he had some 20mm candies for him.

‘’Vampire Four, this is Uxbridge. The intruder is now six miles straight ahead of you. Can you see him, over?’’

‘’Negative, Uxbridge! The intruder must be of small size and he is not producing any trail of smoke. What are his speed and altitude, over?’’

‘’Vampire Four, the intruder is flying at a speed of 230 miles per hour and at an altitude of 6,000 feet. It is still flying straight south towards London. Your orders are to approach him and identify him visually, but hold your fire for the moment, unless he fires on you, over.’’

‘’Understood, Uxbridge.’’

A few seconds later, Radwell saw far ahead in the sky a small moving dot.

‘’Uxbridge, this is Vampire Four. I have now the intruder in sight and will approach him for identification.’’

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Performing a wide ‘S’ turn, Radwell approached the intruder from behind, followed himself by his wingman. However, the more he got close from the intruder, the more he became confused.

‘’Uh, Uxbridge from Vampire Four. What was the supposed nature of the intruder, over?’’

‘’Vampire Four, the intruder claimed to be Santa Claus in his flying sled. What do you see, over?’’

‘’Uh, Uxbridge, I see a red sled with a white top pulled by six flying reindeers. I am serious, over.’’

There was a long silence on the radio, silence that Radwell used to approach further the intruder and to come alongside it, his wingman sandwiching the flying sled between his jet and Radwell’s jet. Radwell thought that he was becoming crazy when he saw a fat man with a white beard and wearing a red costume wave at him from inside the sled.

‘’Uxbridge, I am now flying alongside the intruder. Santa Claus is inside the sled and he his waving hello to me. What do I do now, over?... Uxbridge, did you hear my last transmission, over?’’

The voice of the military air controller in Uxbridge finally answered him, sounding shaken.

‘’Vampire Four, this is Uxbridge. We just received a directive from the Air Ministry. Abandon your interception mission and return to base. We will explain the details to you once on the ground.’’

‘’Uh, understood, Uxbridge. Vampire Five, we are turning around and returning to base.’’

His wingman, who had also been punished for getting involved in the same fight as Radwell, giggled.

‘’Thank God for that, Vampire Four. I really didn’t want to have to tell others that I had shot down Santa’s sled today: my nieces would have cut me to bits.’’

07:46 (London Time)

John Benn Orphanage (run by Barnado’s Vision) 1 Bower Street, Stepney District

London, England

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The nearly 400 boys of ages between two and fourteen who were anxiously looking out by the large windows of the big dining hall of their orphanage craned their necks when one boy shouted with joy.

‘’I CAN SEE SANTA’S SLED IN THE SKY! IT IS APPROACHING!’’ Wild, happy cheers came out from the crowd of children as more boys saw the red and white sled and its six reindeers. The director of the orphanage, James Wilkins, was also standing in front of one of the windows of the hall and smiled to the representative of the d’Orléans Social Foundation close besides him.

‘’Thank you so much for having arranged this Christmas event with the help of the Time Patrol, Mister Jones. Your foundation is truly spoiling my children.’’

Emery Jones, a small, thin man of ordinary appearance, smiled while watching the flying sled come down for a final approach to land in the street in front of the orphanage.

‘’To help the less fortunate and most vulnerable in the society has always been the main goal of the d’Orléans Social Foundation, Mister Wilkins, and this for nearly a century now. What better partner than the Time Patrol to help us in that goal? It possesses the advanced technology which can make the dreams of most children come true, while my foundation has the financial means to buy the toys which will be distributed this morning in this orphanage and in other establishments in London.’’ Wilkins nodded his head, stopping himself from asking the dozens of questions he had in his head. He knew that the d’Orléans Social Foundation had been created in Paris in 1851 by a young French aristocrat, Jeanne d’Orléans, and that it specialized in financially helping many charitable organizations, including orphanages and shelters for abused women. While it obviously had access to huge financial assets, little was actually known publicly about the foundation, apart from the fact that it typically embraced liberal social causes.

The flying sled landed softly on Bower Street and then stopped in front of the main entrance of the orphanage, which occupied a rather austere-looking multi-story brick building. The few pedestrians and drivers along the street watched with incredulity as Santa Claus stepped out of his sled, while the children in the dining hall screamed with joy when he waved at them from the sidewalk. Santa then disappeared suddenly in a flash of light from the sidewalk, to reappear at once in the dining hall, in front of the high chair prepared for him at one end of the room.

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‘’OH OH OH, MY CHILDREN! I AM HERE AND I HAVE MANY GIFTS FOR YOU. COME SIT AROUND ME, WITH THE YOUNGEST ONES IN THE FRONT.’’ As he finished saying that, dozens of big red bags appeared as if by magic around him, flopping on the floor. James Wilkins smiled with contentment on seeing the children hurry to sit on the floor around Santa. The Time Patrol had decidedly prepared a masterful show for the occasion. Once all the children were sitting in front of him, Santa Claus snapped his fingers and a young Elf appeared at his side out of nowhere, attracting a concert of marveled exclamations from the children.

‘’My assistant will now open one by one my bags of gifts and will help me distribute them. Farfadet, the first gift, please!’’

Herakles Sirtis, now nine years old, quickly opened one of the bags, each marked with discreet tags to indicate the age group appropriate for the gifts inside. Taking out the first box, wrapped in Christmas paper, Herakles then made the gift fly into the waiting hands of Mike Crawford, using his power of telekinesis for that and attracting more exclamations. Mike then read the name marked on the gift.

‘’WILLIAM BLAIR, COME SIT IN MY LAP, MY DEAR BOY.’’ A small boy of four, encouraged by one of his monitors, nearly ran to the throne used by Mike, who then picked him up effortlessly to put him down on his knees, then presenting him the gift.

‘’Happy Christmas, William. Be a good boy.’’

‘’I will, Santa.’’ replied the child in his small voice, making Mike smile through his fake white beard.

‘’You can now return to your place and open your gift, William.’’

‘’Thank you, Santa.’’

The little boy, once put down by Mike on the floor, then hurried back to his previous place and quickly opened his gift while another boy was called forward by Santa. William screamed with joy on seeing what his gift was: a set of multicolor plastic construction blocks.

The gift distribution was done at a fast rhythm, but still took a good three hours. At the end of the distribution, Santa got up from his throne and waved goodbye to the children.

‘’I must now leave to go give other gifts to more children, my little ones. Have a very merry Christmas and be good boys.’’

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He then disappeared in a flash of light, along with his Elf and the empty bags, leaving the crowd of happy children with their toys. Two minutes later, his flying sled took off, taking some altitude and then flying away towards another orphanage in London, this one for girls.

11:01 (London Time)

Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, Wales

Great-Britain

Miri Goshenk ‘B’, ex-First Mistress of the Imperium ‘B’, had invited for Christmas the other surviving members of the royal family of the Imperium ‘B’. The Time Patrol had now erased the Imperium from history a year and a half ago in subjective time for Miri, or in 3386 ‘B’ in calendar terms. However, despite the presence of her children and of the other mistresses and children of King Stan ‘B’, Miri was hard pressed to feel truly cheerful. She had felt empty since the death of her husband, King Stan VI ‘B’, who had disappeared in the crash of his flagship near New Lake City on July the Second of 3386 ‘A’. Stan had been trying to destroy the Time Patrol and the society of the Global Council, which supported the Time Patrol, before the latter could erase his Imperium from history in order to protect the Global Council, a pacifist, unarmed society. Despite having bitterly fought the Imperium ‘B’, the Time Patrol had then treated Miri and the other survivors from the Imperium with great humanity after the destruction of the ROYAL SOVEREIGN, even buying for the members of the Imperium royal family their ancestral castle of Cardiff, in Wales. Since then, Miri and her son Len had joined the ranks of the Time Patrol, coming regularly to Cardiff for vacation. Christmas was one of the occasions when Miri returned to Cardiff Castle, despite the fact that she was an atheist, like all citizens of the Imperium.

Miri was supervising the preparation of the noon meal when one of the Imperium royal guards who had survived the crash of the ROYAL SOVEREIGN and was still serving Miri and her family, came to her. The man, a bald giant with six fingers per hands, like all citizens of the Imperium and of the Global Council, seemed both shaken and happy as he stopped at attention in front of her.

‘’Your Majesty, Nancy Laplante is here…with the King.’’

‘’You mean King George VI?’’

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‘’No, Your Majesty: she came with King Stan.’’

Despite her strong willpower, Miri nearly fainted at those words.

‘’WHERE ARE THEY?’’

‘’In the entrance hall, Your Majesty.’’

The guard couldn’t say more, Miri starting at a run towards the entrance hall. Arriving there in less than a minute, Miri accelerated at the sight of the bald giant standing beside Nancy Laplante.

‘’STAN!’’

‘’MIRI!’’ replied the man, opening his arms to greet her. They kissed each other with passion for a long moment before looking each other in the eyes, tears on their cheeks.

‘’By the stars, Stan, you are exactly as you were the day you crashed with the ROYAL SOVEREIGN.’’

‘’That’s because Nancy just saved me in-extremis less than one hour ago…according to my biological time. She sent a team in 3386 ‘A’ to extract me by time transit probe just before my flagship crashed. They also at the same time saved the two crewmembers of their patrol ship which we shot down a few minutes before that.’’ Miri looked at Nancy, who was wearing her customary white robe of Overseer of Palestine and was waiting patiently two paces away.

‘’I will never be able to thank you enough for this, Nancy. You are the most generous and comprehending woman in the Universe.’’

Nancy made a modest smile at that.

‘’To see you happy with Stan will be my reward, Miri. Stan may have been my enemy in 3386, but he is a brave man and showed that he was ready to sacrifice himself to save innocent people. If he would not have stayed at the commands of the ROYAL SOVEREIGN to steer it away from New Lake City, thus preventing it from crashing on the city or on other inhabited areas, tens of thousands would have died. Well, I believe that you will have much to tell each other, so I will leave you alone. Merry Christmas to all of you.’’

Nancy then disappeared in a flash of light before Miri could say more to her. Returning her attention to Stan, she smiled to him with eyes sparkling with joy.

‘’Come, Stan. Your children and your other mistresses will be happy to see you after all that time.’’

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13:00 (Jerusalem Time)

Thursday, December 30, 1943 ‘B’

Justice Hall, Government Administrative Tower

Jerusalem, Holy Land of Palestine

Nancy, wearing her embroidered white and gold robe, took place on the elevated chair at one end of the Justice Hall which she customarily used to administer High Justice as Overseer of the Holy Land. She did this every Thursday afternoon and this would be the last session for this year, if one followed the Common Era calendar. The whole business of judging personally the most serious criminal cases and the judicial appeal cases had at first attracted a lot of negative comments, mostly from outside Palestine, with many calling this a return to medieval justice and an example of power going to her head. However, her demonstration of absolute impartiality and honesty, allied with her mental gift of telepathy, which allowed her to read the truth directly in the minds of the accused and of the witnesses, had quickly convinced everybody in Palestine that her administration of High Justice ensured that the innocents were spared and the guilty punished. After over a year of such High Justice courts, the number of violent crimes and other serious offences in Palestine had dropped dramatically, to the point where some court sessions lately had no cases to judge. In such cases, as with all past sessions, Nancy then heard the requests of the citizens of Palestine who wanted to petition her on various matters. This was such a day, with no criminal cases for her judgment. However, despite that, the crowd in the Justice Hall was still surprisingly large. Her prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, was even present, along with all the members of his cabinet. Nancy was reluctant to use her power of telepathy to learn what was going on, but she could sense that something was brewing, something that made many around the hall smile discreetly with anticipation.

With the doors of the hall now closed and the benches facing her full of expectant people, Nancy spoke in the microphone set besides her chair.

‘’There are no judicial cases or appeal cases on the agenda today, so the floor is now free for anyone who would wish to petition me or ask me a question.’’ David Ben-Gurion came forward at once, walking to the lectern set up for those who spoke to her or gave testimonies. Speaking in its microphone, he read from a sheet of paper taken out of one pocket.

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‘’Overseer, you have been administering this land and rendering justice for nearly fourteen months now. From a divided, war-torn land full of ethnic and religious hatred, Palestine has become under you, with the generous help of the Global Council, a country at peace and which now lives in prosperity and justice. You have proved yourself to be selfless, compassionate, fair and generous and have made for a large part what the Holy Land is today. Furthermore, you have proved many times already that you truly are ‘The Hand of God’, even though you still shy from that title. You also proved to be of absolute honesty and always lived frugally, contrary to the standards one had come to expect from the rulers around the Middle East. What I want to present to you today is more than a personal petition, or one from my cabinet: it comes from all our citizens, who were unanimous in their response to the discreet poll I had circulated about this.’’

‘’You circulated a poll, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion?’’ said Nancy, truly surprised, making the old politician smile with malice.

‘’I have to say that hiding that poll from you was no easy feat, Overseer. I however have the results in my hands and am now presenting to you a petition in the name of all the citizens of the Holy Land…for you to become Queen of Jerusalem, our queen.’’

For a moment Nancy was left speechless, while a wave of emotions washed over her. All along during her life she had practiced self-discipline and kept her personal living standards modest, shunning luxuries and vain honors. Yes, she often indulged in sex and was ready to accept her dues when she deserved them, but she was the opposite of most of the rulers in this time period. The power she yielded was for the good of all, not for her own personal good. She would normally flatly refuse to become a royalty, finding such nobility titles vainglorious and snobbish. In this case, however, it was her own people of Palestine, a people she had devoted herself to help and make prosper in peace, who wanted to crown her, not some group of sycophants or opportunists. A powerful voice then shook her mind.

‘’ACCEPT, NANCY. YOU ARE MOST WORTHY OF THIS TITLE.’’ From the stunned looks that came to all in the hall, Nancy understood at once that the mental message from The One, the nearly omnipotent spiritual entity from which she held her supernatural powers, had been heard by all around her. Taking a deep breath to slow down her heartbeat and calm down, she got up from her chair and looked around at the crowd now staring at her with expectation.

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‘’Good people of the Holy Land, your petition for me to become your queen honors me greatly and warms my heart. To refuse your petition would be to insult you. I thus accept your request, but I will ask you in return not to link wasteful fast and pomp to that title.’’

Obviously relieved that she had accepted so readily, Ben-Gurion smiled and motioned to one of his assistants to approach him. He then took the wooden box the man was holding and walked slowly to Nancy’s chair, stopping three paces in front of her.

‘’Nothing would normally be too good for a ruler such as you, My Queen. However, your modesty and selflessness are known and recognized by all. We thus only ask of you to carry these jewels as a token of your title and position.’’ Ben-Gurion then opened the wooden box in his hands, revealing a golden tiara, a necklace and one ring. While evidently of high quality manufacture and made of gold, the three items could not be called extravagant, having only a few modest gems set in them. The Arab mayor of East Jerusalem then came forward as well, along with the Jewish mayor of West Jerusalem. With Ben-Gurion still holding the opened box, the Arab mayor took the tiara from the box and put it on Nancy’s head. The Jewish mayor then took the necklace and clipped it around Nancy’s neck. Ben-Gurion completed the ceremony by slipping the gold ring, which bore the likeness of Palestine’s contour, with a diamond inserted in the location of Jerusalem, around Nancy’s left index. As the three men knelt in reverence to her, The One’s voice boomed again.

‘’YOU ARE NOW THEIR QUEEN AS WELL AS MY CHOSEN. LET ME NOW GIVE TO YOU AND TO YOUR PEOPLE A GIFT.’’

Through the large windows lining two sides of the hall, Nancy and the crowd then saw with growing emotion a huge cloud of intense white light come down from the sky on top of the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, which supported the Dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the recently built Jewish shrine containing the Ark of the Covenant, saved from looting and destruction in the distant past by the Time Patrol and then brought back to Jerusalem in 1942 ‘B’ by Nancy. The luminous cloud penetrated down into the mass of the Temple Mount like water being absorbed by a sponge, until it had nearly all disappeared inside the stone structure. As the last part of the light cloud was going inside, a stream of light suddenly shot out of it, heading towards the government tower and getting to it in a second. It passed through a window of the Justice Hall without breaking it and went to the ring just slipped around Nancy’s finger. What looked to her like hundreds of cubic meters of intense white light was then absorbed by her ring, as if

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sucked in it. While the ring then looked normal afterwards, the same thing could not be said of the Temple Mount, which was glowing faintly from under it. Before anyone could comment on that, the voice of The One spoke again to all.

‘’MY ESSENCE IS NOW MOSTLY INSIDE THE TEMPLE MOUNT, WHILE ANOTHER PORTION OF ME IS CONTAINED IN THE RING OF THE QUEEN OF JERUSALEM. FROM NOW ON, ANY JUST AND HONEST PERSON VISITING THE TEMPLE MOUNT WILL SEE ITS HEALTH AUTOMATICALLY RESTORED BY ME. HOWEVER, BEWARE THOSE WITH EVIL IN THEIR HEARTS WHO WILL GO TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT, AS THEY WILL THEN BE JUDGED BY ME.’’ The next part was heard only by Nancy, as she and all others present knelt in reverence towards the Temple Mount.

‘’THE PART OF ME IN YOUR RING WILL BOTH PROTECT YOU AND ENHANCE YOUR POWERS, NANCY. FURTHERMORE, NOBODY WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE THIS RING AWAY FROM YOU, OR EVEN SEE IT IF NEED BE. I WILL NOW BE PART OF YOU, AS YOU ARE PART OF ME.’’

‘’Thank you, Great One.’’ said softly Nancy, tears in her eyes. ‘’You just gave my people the greatest gift possible: the gift of health.’’

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